Citigroup Inc. launches first ever branded group on LinkedIn

Citigroup Inc. launched today the first branded group to appear on LinkedIn, said Vanessa Colella, managing director and head of North American marketing at Citi.

Professional Women's Network, Powered by Citi targets professional women to become members, Colella said. The content on the group links back to Women & Co., Citi's decade old personal finance site for women, she said, adding that professional women were targeted because although Citi reaches out to all women, LinkedIn's audience is made up mostly of professionals.

Colella said the “first goal is to figure out what's of most value to customers. What is it that professional women want to talk about?” From there Citi can see what articles professional women are reading and better shape content toward them in the future.

Colella didn't specify how this would shape Citi's larger marketing strategy toward professional women, but said: “We really do our best to provide products, services and features that appeal to consumers.”

The next step, Colella said, is to work with LinkedIn to grow the group. “We started taking a look about a year ago at what digital publishers we could partner with,” she said. “We chose LinkedIn because we could really offer something to consumers that neither of us could offer on our own.”